Where Do I Come From?
by RainaAstaldo
Summary: A fatal accident causes Ensayne to lose almost all memories of her life. Now it's her mission to get back home and find out what happened in the events leading up to the accident. With the Storm Hawks welcoming her into their group her wishes may come true, but at a terrible price. They say that the truth can hurt, that ignorance is bliss. Well, what they say is true.
1. Ensayne Crash Landing

The late morning sky of Atmos today was clear and bright. There were barely any airships travelling in the sector except for The Rusting Mary, a cargo ship.

"-we have 112 crate loads this week. Yes. We'll be there by mid-afternoon. You have a good day too, see ya."

Captain Harlin clicked off the radio and set it down upon the bench top. As he sat back in his seat, he grabbed a small foam cup from the surface of a bench directly to his left and lifted it to take a long satisfied sip.

"If it weren't for you coffee I'd have crashed this poor hunk o' junk several hundred times over by now."

Once it was placed back down he got up and walked over to the wheel, which was currently propped with brooms; a common trick he used because he knew the area so well from decades of flying in the sector. It gave him time to relax, read a magazine, play a game of chess with the ship mates, maybe have a few drinks of scotch…well that's no maybe, he'd _definitely_ have some scotch.

Captain Harlin chuckled whilst moving the brooms aside. "If I had a piece of gold for the amount of times I've done this I think I'd be pretty darn rich by now."

At the back of the ship there was an extra passenger for today's journey, staying in a small storage room at the bottom of the bridge as all the living quarters were full. The passenger, who currently occupied a rickety old bed picked up from the dump the previous day, was a young brown-haired female; she was deep in sleep, exhausted by her hitch-hiking lifestyle. Luckily Captain Harlin was sympathetic enough to let her on without any questions; most days she didn't have the time to even ask and thus be aboard illegally. This time was different though – the girl almost ended up in a deadly situation the last time she jumped a ship, so rather than risk her life to save time she personally went to Harlin for permission and gave him a few pieces of silver as a gesture of appreciation. Then again with his track record of near-misses – as is expected from a person drinking lots of coffee to stay awake all the time AND having the occasional few glasses of scotch – it probably wouldn't have mattered either way; there was definitely a high chance of her dying on this trip.

A weighted knock on the door caused her to stir from sleep. It was one of the workers. "Hey girly, I got some food for ya." As she slowly rubbed her eyes he walked over holding a plate that contained some kind of lumpy gruel-looking stuff. The girl sat up with tired eyes and pushed her hair behind her ears so it was out of the way as she ate. Although it was hard for her not to pull a face expressing hesitation towards the food, which looked and smelt like rancid week-old vomit, it was still taken with gratitude.

"Thank you." she dipped her fingers in, then lifted the gloop to her mouth and sucked it off the tips of her fingers. There was a moment's pause in which her eyes squeezed together, mouth pursing in disgust, during which she tried her hardest to swallow. With a large gasp afterwards, she gingerly continued to eat.

The worker looked at her curiously. "So, where are you heading?" he asked.

"Home," the girl responded with exactness.

"Home, huh?" said the worker whilst he propped himself against the open door. "What terra?"

She twitched her mouth. "I can't really remember…all I know is that I have to go home."

With a nod, the worker said, "My name's Fergus. What's yours?"

"Ensayne," she responded.

Fergus walked over and sat down next to her. "You do know that on our route we don't pass near many terras, I have a feeling the one we're heading to isn't gunna be your home terra. We drop off deliveries every couple of days. You don't look like a Carsenine gal."

With a final dreaded gulp, Ensayne handed her empty plate back to Fergus. "I'm sure you're right."

"Ay...Ensayne, wasn't it? I'm sure you'll find it. And ya know, Carsenine is a nice place so might as well make the most of your time there; lots of good folk and nice scenery."

He closed the door, leaving Ensayne alone in the room. She flopped back onto the bed and looked around at all the cockroaches scuttling along the floor, walls and ceiling.

"Well, it hasn't been the worst trip. I have an actual bed, that's a plus, and I got to eat food. Things are looking up I think."

* * *

**Somewhere in Atmos...**

"Surf's up dudes! WOOOO-HOOOO!"

Enormous crystal blue waves swirled into large wall of water, creating a magnificent tunnel to surf into. A squealing blonde haired sixteen-ear-old boy named Finn took the initiative to drive in thinking he'd make it, until…

"Ahhh-AHHHHH!" Finn was enveloped by water when the waves collapsed down on him. It didn't seem to bother him though because when his head came up to the surface, he had a ridiculous grin on his face.

"Junko I hope you were watching!" he called out to his friend, but Junko was too focused on his sandcastle to notice, since the final touches were being made: a makeshift flag, seaweed decor, an assortment of sea shells, and some sticks tied together to make little stick people. Although the reputation of a wallop was that of strength and seriousness, Junko couldn't have been more different from the rest of his kind.

A little further up the beach, a skymonkey was in hot pursuit of a chicken. His name was Radarr. As Aerrow's co-pilot, Radarr was no pet; he often helped Aerrow during their fights with Cyclonians in case anything went wrong. Currently he was shaking his fist at the feathered fowl as it ran in a quick-paced waddling fashion with his sandwich firm in its beak. For some strange reason chickens would always manage to find Radarr, but they often posed as annoyances, sometimes even a little flirtatious.

And then a few hundred feet past him, a red-haired boy and blue-haired girl named Aerrow and Piper – both sixteen just as Finn and Junko – were relaxing on some beach chairs underneath a large umbrella.

"It was a good idea to come here," Aerrow said to Piper. "The weather is perfect."

Piper smiled. "Sure is!"

Aerrow looked around the beach for a moment. "Hey, where's Stork?"

"Stork's down by the rock pools," she replied. "I think he was looking for crabs."

"_And_ I found some!" Stork sung out to them. Stork was a Merb, the oldest out of them all at twenty three. He began marching up the loose white sand, smiling victoriously. Aerrow and Piper sat themselves up in a hasty manner to get a good look, and there it was; a bright orange crab captured in a box.

Stork stopped next to the two and said, "I'd like you to note this is not our dinner for tonight – he's my pet."

"Pet." Piper raised her eyebrow. "Really, Stork?"

Stork nodded vigorously. "Yes, my new pet. I've got it all figured out. He'll stay in my room, of course, but I need a tank to stick him in so when we head off I'd like to stop by Frank's Junk Shop."

"Alright then Stork," Aerrow said to him, squinting at the crab – it didn't look very happy. Stork punched the air with a shout of glee, then headed off along the shore again.

After a minute of conversation about Stork's new pet, Aerrow decided to change the subject. "You know it's so nice not having to worry about Cyclonians anymore. I think we did it right this time. Cyclonis and the Dark Ace are dead; Ravess, Snipe and all the Raptors are in jail along with the rest of the Talons. I think the old Storm Hawks would be proud of us."

"You can say that again!" Junko called from next to his sandcastle. "I could spend all day doing this – building the castle, decorating it-"

Suddenly a chicken came running through – it was the chicken Radarr was chasing, and Radarr wasn't that far behind.

"No, not the castle!" Junko yelled with panic. But it was too late; the chicken may have flown over it but Radarr hadn't been paying attention, so with a surprised screech he toppled right onto it. The castle crumbled completely underneath.

Junko groaned. "Radarr look what you did!"

Radarr looked up at Junko with big sorry eyes. It was hard to be mad at him.

"Oh, it's okay Radarr," Junko stroked his head and Radarr squawked happily.

Watching Junko try to rebuild his sand castle, Piper turned to Aerrow with a serious expression. "I've had this bad feeling lately, I didn't want to tell you about it but I feel like something isn't quite right. Do you think it's possible they might return?"

All of a sudden Stork was in front of them. "Piper," he began. "There is only one answer to that question. What do you think that answer is?" Before Piper could respond, Stork nodded at her. "It would be yes, wouldn't it? Now," he stood upright as he'd been half-hunched over whilst speaking. "What is the real question here? The REAL question is when, how many, and what will they try to get back their power."

Aerrow responded in his usual positive attitude. "There's no need to be so pessimistic Stork. They're all either locked up in the maximum security prison at Terra Ertghol, or dead. As for the Night Crawlers, no one's seen one since the end of the war. I think it's safe to say that we won't be hearing or seeing any of them again."

But this didn't go down too well with Finn; he had been walking up from the water when he overheard their conversation.

"HEY, don't say that!" he yelled. "Because every time someone says, 'it can't get any worse' or 'it's all over now' or something like that, you know what happens? _Do you know what happens Aerrow_?"

Unfortunately Finn was right; everyone's attention became redirected to the sound of a signal coming through Aerrow's radio. Finn, whose eyes were now ablaze, pointed a quivering finger.

"THAT!" he shouted hysterically.

"What?" Aerrow asked, but Piper shushed him.

"This is Guy Skylee of 'Inside Atmos' reporting with an emergency headline! There have been sightings of Cyclonians in the skies – no attacks as of yet, but Atmosians are warned to keep their eyes peeled and make a report if Cyclonians are spotted again."

Aerrow, Piper, Radarr, Junko and Stork turned to Finn. In return, Finn gave them an I-told-you-so look.

Then everyone looked at Aerrow.

"Let's find ourselves some Cyclonians!" Aerrow gestured for them all to pack up.

Finn gaped at him. "But...I wanted to surf some more!"

"Finn –" Aerrow promptly gave him a look that told Finn now-is-not-the-time-to-complain.

"No," Finn pouted. "No! This is all your fault; you just HAD to say 'we won't be seeing them ever again! This happens every single time on TV and look now, it's happened to us too! But does anyone pay attention to anything I say? No, _of course not_."

With a final, "Hmph!" he picked up his surf board and trudged off to the Condor.

Junko looked solemn. If this news should affect anyone the most it would be him. The Wallops sided with Cyclonis for the war and there were very few who refused to do so. Sadly his family weren't part of that group, and all were killed in the midst of war. Chief Thragg was killed by Junko, who has never forgotten how horrible it felt taking a life. It was only out of sheer desperation, facing death himself if he didn't strike Thragg first. Junko had vowed not to fight again from that point on as it scarred him too deeply. "Finn's right, you've jinxed us Aerrow! Why did you have to say that out loud?"

"Right about what now?" Stork popped up. "Was Finn talking again? I usually just block out his voice."

Aerrow sighed heavily. He definitely understood their frustration, but he couldn't just let them go and assume they get caught by someone else. If the Storm Hawks could catch them first, perhaps the Talons won't have the chance to band together and plot anything nasty. A far worse outcome would be if they managed to let out the rest of the Talons, most importantly big guns like Repton, Ravess and Snipe.

Once everyone was on the Condor the doors came up and Stork began to power up the engine. He knew exactly where they were going: Cyclonia.

"And here we go again, back to square one." Stork muttered darkly.

The Storm Hawks had been travelling for an hour and a half northeast, not even a quarter of the way near Cyclonia. Some cloud forms filled the sky ahead of them, and only moments later Stork saw forms fly through them –

"Aerrow," Stork's voice sang out abruptly. "I can see our little FRIENDS..."

Just as Aerrow came running forward along with Finn, Junko, Piper and Radarr, two Cyclonians were riding out from the clouds in the direction of the ship. You wouldn't know it at first as they weren't in uniform or using Talon switchblades – all they had were old Cloud Bangers – but the weapons and notable red goggles sitting on top of their heads gave them away easily. When the two realised it was the Condor, their expressions of terror were seen even from a far distance.

The Cyclonians spun their rides around immediately.

"Let's get them!" Aerrow shouted.

Stork revved the accelerator, whilst Aerrow and Piper ran out of the room and into the hanger to get on their rides. While they were starting up their engines they felt the ship jerk into a complete stop, causing them both to be flung off and thrown across the floor. Piper slammed right into a wooden crate. As she rubbed her head she looked over to see Aerrow trying to lift himself up while groaning in pain.

"Stork?" he said wearily. "What's going on?"

Stork's eyes hasted to look over all the controls, trying to figure out what had happened. "I don't know man, but you two should get out there and go after those Cyclonians otherwise you'll lose them...who knows if I'll get the Condor started again in time – if she even starts."

While Aerrow and Piper hurried to their bikes with a bit of a limp whilst trying to regain themselves, Stork's attempts to start up the Condor made it sound out some very sickly, creaking noises, obviously indicating it was not going anywhere. The two kicked off out of the hanger, sped across the runway, and took off into the air.

They passed through the clouds in front and saw the two Cyclonians on their dodgy Cloud Bangers quite a fair way ahead of them. Aerrow and Piper accelerated harder. Within a few minutes they managed to catch up.

One of the Cyclonians put his Cloud Banger on auto-pilot so he could jump out of his seat and turn back to shoot a blast at Aerrow with his staff. SHMM! Several red bolts flew into Aerrow's direction, but they missed the target. Aerrow pulled out his energy blades and took a good hard swing, shooting a blast of blue light, and knocked the Cyclonian off their vehicle. They managed to grab at the handle though, which left them dangling down the side. The other Cyclonian gulped.

"So it looks like you're not all gone, huh?" Aerrow began, looking from one to the other.

"Oh, yeah, like you'd be able to take us out for good kiddo," said the one barely holding onto the handle of his bike. He pulled himself up with difficulty, but managed to get back on. "Master Cyclonis has a plan to –"

"Hey, _shut up_!" the second Cyclonian swiftly threw a small crystal at the other's head. "Are you a bloody idiot or something?!"

Aerrow and Piper exchanged anxious looks to one another, but in that very moment the Cyclonians took the opportunity: they shot multiple times at the two Storm Hawks and, though they missed, it was good enough to block their vision by the light of the blasts. The pair of Cyclonians sped away.

"Quick!" Aerrow yelled to Piper.

"Aerrow," Piper pointed urgently downwards. "They're going into the Wastelands!"

Aerrow started to rev up to make for a faster acceleration, but Piper put a hand on his arm to stop him momentarily.

"Is it worth chasing after them?" she asked seriously.

"Of course it is!" Aerrow said with determination clear in his voice. "We need to know what's going on Piper! What was supposed to be the final battle against Cyclonia to end it all hasn't, AND Cyclonis is still alive. We watched her fall into the Wastelands...she should be dead!"

Aerrow gazed down toward the cloud line separating the Wastelands from the sky, and watched as the pair of Cyclonians passed through those clouds. He sighed.

"The last thing we need is to end up dead in the Wastelands chasing a couple of Cyclonians when we could be continuing straight on for Cyclonia, don't you think?" Piper turned her Heliscooter around. After a moment of staring off into the swirling whiteness beneath them, Aerrow reluctantly turned around also. The two headed back for the Condor.

"Hey guys," Finn called to them. Aerrow and Piper had just walked through the doors from the hanger. "So we don't know what's wrong, but it's okay!"

Piper looked confused.

"Helpful, isn't he?" Stork said to her. "What blondie means is we have help on the way, but we may be stuck here for a little while."

"How long's a 'little while' Stork?" Aerrow asked questionably.

Stork tapped his index finger to his chin. "Oh, about...an hour or so."

Aerrow gaped. "A whole hour?!"

"More likely two." Stork added. He casually leaned against a pipe. "Well the Condor won't be going anywhere, it just isn't starting up. The closest repair shop is quite far from here and the mechanic has to finish a job first before he can come out to us."

"Alright, so we'll just have to wait then," Aerrow tried to sound positive. "How about we do something while we wait?"

The group gathered round. "Oh, oh!" Finn threw his hand into the air, jumping up and down ecstatically. "Can we play Monopoly? I call dibs on the surf board!"

Before anyone could agree – or disagree for that matter – Finn ran off through the door to the corridor and moments later came back with the box and plopped it onto the table.

"First thing's first, whose playing as Banker?" Aerrow asked.

"Is this really a question now?" Stork laughed. "I've always been Banker every other game because everyone cheats."

With a nod, Aerrow continued. "Has everyone got their pieces?" He smiled happily clutching a small silver Skyknight.

"Like always I'll have the crystal," Piper picked it up from the small pile of little silver objects in the box and placed hers on the board.

Stork snatched his up within a second and glared around at everyone. "I'll be having the airship thank you very much."

"Stork, we wouldn't take your airship," Aerrow laughed.

"Hmm, I'm going to be the sock this time," Junko announced to the group. "No one ever chooses the sock."

"And what about you Radarr?" Aerrow asked him. Radarr's eyes roved over all the pieces that were left: there was an energy sword, a skimmer, a terra and a banana peel. He made a few noises in his throat like he was thinking. After a moment, he reached for the silver skimmer and pretended it was flying around.

"Alright then, everyone's set, so let's start playing!" Aerrow called happily.

* * *

**Two hours, three minutes and twenty eight seconds later...**

Piper clutched at her side laughing. "Finn, look at you!" she giggled. "You have one dollar left. You'll have to mortgage a terra. We're not going to do up another I.O.U. book like last time – you were the only one in it!"

"So?" Finn snapped defensively, folding his arms. "I own the three most expensive terras –"

"That no one has landed on once," Stork grinned at Finn's bad luck. "But it would seem you've landed on almost everyone's terras at least _twice_. Which, by the way, where's my three thousand dollars for the last four you got caught on Finn?"

"I'll get it to you!" Finn frowned in a panic. "Junko, can you lend me some money?"

"It's against the rules Finn," Junko held tightly onto his large colourful amount of notes.

"Come on, you got HEAPS and you're not doing anything with it!" Finn bent across the table and clasped his hands together. "Please, PLEASE Junko!"

Piper swiftly held out her hand between the two before Junko could be swayed. "No one's going to bend the rules just because they're friends." However as she said this, Aerrow sneakily slipped Piper a few hundred dollar notes under the table.

"Ahhh-HA!" Stork jumped up and pointed at her. "I saw that! And I bet you've been getting hand-outs from him this whole game haven't you?!"

Piper blushed and dodged his gaze. "N-no I haven't!"

All of a sudden, there was a tremendous noise like a large fog horn that sounded outside.

Stork kicked his chair back and ran towards the hanger. "The mechanic's here, _the mechanic's here_!"

The rest of the Storm Hawks followed out onto the runway, where they saw a ship half the size of the Condor parked next to them. A bridge then began to extend over the side of the runway, clunking down hard on the runway's surface. Moments later, a man walked out: he was wearing dark grey overalls and carried an enormous metal tool box in one hand.

"Hello there, my name is Greol," he greeted. "You needed assistance?"

Stork nodded. "When I accelerated the Condor faster, she just stopped. I thought she was only stalling but I haven't been able to start her up again. We've checked all the usual stuff."

Greol nodded. "You didn't hit the high speed impeller?"  
Stork shook his head. "No, we had uhh...issues with it the last time it was used so it was only through regular acceleration."  
"Well that makes my job easier. Should only be the Exaspor then. If connections get loose and the vehicle isn't serviced on a regular basis you wouldn't know, and then it takes that one moment and bam, it's popped out entirely. Anyway it's piss easy to fix."

Finn furrowed his brow at Greol. He muttered to Aerrow, "Piss easy? Where'd he get that one from?"

Greol dropped the tool box onto the ground, opened it up and pulled out a handful of tools.

"It should only take me about five minutes," he said, then proceeded through the hanger and made his way to the engine room.

Aerrow, Piper and Stork follow after him while Finn, Junko and Radarr stayed behind to keep an eye on the ship parked next to the Condor.

"What the heck is an Exaspor?" Finn queried Junko.

Junko looked at him. "It's complicated," he said simply.

"Doesn't sound like it is." Finn retorted with a huff.

When five minutes had passed, the group returned to the bridge.

"Thanks for that," Aerrow said to Greol.

"Too easy mate," Greol replied. "Just give me fifteen for it. I would however suggest bringing her to my garage sometime and I'll give her a full service. She'd be much happier for it."

As Aerrow gave Greol the money, Junko gaped and shouted, "SHIIIP!"

Everyone spun around; a cargo ship roughly the same size as the Condor was passing through a mass of clouds not that far off and it was coming in quickly.

* * *

Captain Harlin barely needed to concentrate on what was ahead, having flown the route for the last twenty-seven years of his life and with the navigation instruments, there was no need to worry. Thus, he was casually conversing with his friend Terry while stroking his enormous frizzy beard.

"Look at those clouds ahead." Terry remarked.

"Yeaupah, those are some dense clouds huh? Could you take a quick peek at the navigation controls for me mate? Just to check there's no poor bugger on the other side."  
Terry wandered over to the instruments, but he looked concerned.

"What is it?" Harlin didn't like the way Terry's eyes were widening.

"They're uhh…not working."

Captain Harlin's face contorted with dread. "Ohhhh SHIT!"

At the back of the ship, Ensayne was standing outside on the deck leaning against a wall near the small storage room, when all of a sudden the ship lunged severely. She yelled out in panic as she tumbled forward; she didn't even have time to grab onto the door, and realising this she knew something horrific was about to happen. She slid across the deck, banging into the railing quite hard, then flipped over the side without a moment's chance to grab on to something. Her voice pierced the air with the sound of her wavering scream. She could feel the air whipping around her. The Rusting Mary was fast shrinking away while her body twisted and tumbled in descent, showing her in the last few seconds of consciousness what she was about to crash into and surely die of impact from - someone else's stationary ship. Letting go of her fear briefly, Ensayne relaxed her body to brace for impact.

As the large ship was cornering away the Storm Hawks saw a person fall overboard. They plummeted horribly fast and hit the runway with a gut-wrenching thud, catapulting back into the air from the force of the impact, then rolled over several times before coming to a stop. The mechanic yelped and shouted in confusion. In that moment the Storm Hawks rushed over towards the person, revealing once they were close enough that the person was a girl; she was literally feet away from falling off the side. Blood was all over her face, seeping into her hair, long abrasions covering her arms and legs from scraping along the rough surface of the runway, and there was blood steadily oozing from her mouth.

Piper checked her pulse. It was barely there. "Junko go grab a stretcher, we need to get her inside asap. She's most likely broken bones. Take her down the first corridor."

Junko nodded. When he came back with the stretcher, Finn helped grab the other end and they both carried her inside.

"I...uhh...will the girl be...?" the mechanic was obviously unsure what his role was at this point.

"Don't worry, we have it under control," said Aerrow. "Thanks again for fixing the Condor."

"Umm, I have a question," Stork began as they were running through the hanger. "Is it really a good idea to let this girl on board? Every time we've had a guest on the Condor it's ended badly. Let's not forget the time Cyclonis changed her appearance to make herself into LARK. You know, not too long ago we came across some Cyclonians, so it's not out of the realms of possibility that they've set up this entire situation which forces us into taking the guest and then BAM! We're dead. Cyclonians cheer, Cyclonis takes over the world, Atmosians are oppressed again and etcetera. Pretty quick way to screw us over!"

"As much as I would usually agree with you Stork, I have huge doubts that's what has happened. Cyclonis wouldn't risk potentially missing our runway to fall into the Wastelands AGAIN, and she is smart enough to know doing a stunt so soon after we spotted her Talons would arouse too much suspicion. No, if she was going to infiltrate us again, it'd be when we LEAST expect it." Piper walked into her room and rummaged through her drawers. Finally she found what she was looking for. "If a Mill crystal could fix all the bones in Aerrow's body within five days, then it'll work fine for this."

The Storm Hawks gathered inside a spare room down the first hall where Junko had placed the girl. Radarr scurried onto the bed and looked intently at her appearance as if trying to determine if she was an intruder. They hadn't found a Cloaking Crystal, however, so she was who she appeared to be. While Piper created a cast around her, Aerrow said to Stork, "Fly us to a terra where we'll be safe from being seen. The last thing we need is for someone to come across us while this girl is in the middle of treatment."

Stork nodded. "I'll check the map and see what the closest unpopulated terra is from here."

He left the room. Piper finished the cast, then put the Mill crystal in place. "Her injuries are serious, but they're not as severe as I originally thought. We'll just have to see how long it takes to heal, I'm not sure at this stage."

"It might be worthwhile keeping an eye on her," Aerrow suggested. "We'll take shifts. I'll do first watch."

Everyone headed out of the room. Aerrow pulled up a chair next to the bed and peered at the girl with curiosity.

She looked older than him. He wasn't sure how much older but if he had to guess, maybe five or six years.

"So," Aerrow spoke aloud. "Who are you...?"

It was hard to tell, but he had a feeling she was possibly part of a squadron judging by the attire Aerrow had seen her wearing before the cast was put on. He remembered seeing a plate of metal attached over the abdomen area, a large squadron seal stitched onto the back of the tunic, a pair of fingerless gloves with metal wrist bands, dark grey leggings and long brown boots, which were particularly worn and weathered. What Aerrow wanted to know was what a member of a squadron had been doing by themselves on a cargo ship, out in the middle of nowhere?

Aerrow looked at the bedside table and saw a metal rod sitting there. He got up and moved over to the table, picking it up in his hands.

"This is a staff," he muttered softly as he rolled it over. Noticing the button and clicking mechanism, Aerrow pressed the button down and voila, the rod expanded at both ends into a full staff. It looked a bit old fashioned and simple, so it definitely wasn't a multi-crystal wielding staff like Piper's. Aerrow had a look inside one of the leather satchels they'd found attached to her belt – now sitting on the bedside table – and what he discovered was four green striker crystals. These used to be a common crystal for weapons about 10 years ago from what he knew, but they weren't seen too often now. Her whole getup seemed so…retro. But why?

* * *

Night began to close in as the distant sun was setting, bringing a magnificent orange glow through the sky where scattered clouds had formed beautiful patterns. The Storm Hawks found a safe terra to stay a few hours ago, with the Condor positioned on a high rise overlooking most of the place; from this perfect vantage point they had a great view of their surroundings.

The last rays of light flickered across the sky and it was dinner time on the Condor. Aerrow had finished his first shift, whilst Finn had just come off his meaning Stork was the next person to keep watch on their guest.

"Tell me Junko isn't doing the cooking tonight?" Stork questioned Piper.

"You have nothing to worry about Stork, Finn's got it covered."

Stork's eyes widened. "Umm...Finn?"

Piper raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"Finn can't cook either! Can you do the cooking PLEASE?"

She laughed. "It'll be fine."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Stork said in a panicked voice. "Finn's still going to cook? Piper, no no no no no –!"

Piper walked away giggling at his distress.

Stork made his way to the room begrudgingly. Once the door was closed, he turned around and peered at the unconscious girl lying on the bed. Stork narrowed his eyes suspiciously while he observed her. After a few moments of staring, he moved over to the chair that Aerrow and Finn had occupied. It was positioned close beside the bed.

With a heavy sigh he leaned back in the chair. "I can see this being incredibly boring."

* * *

Stork had been sitting in the room for half an hour. During that time Piper came in to check the Mill crystal's progress and it seemed it had already finished the healing process.

"She mustn't have had any broken bones then," Piper said with relief. "That's incredibly lucky." Once the Mill crystal was removed from the crystal insert, Piper took off the entire cast. Before leaving the room she went to the cupboard near the door to grab a blanket to cover the girl.

"Now she can kill me without restraint," Stork mumbled to himself just as Piper left. Since the cast was off he decided that he didn't want to sit too close to her in case she woke up and tried to strangle, stab, bite, kick or scratch him, which would be easy to do in close proximity.

Now he was sitting on the other side of the room where he'd have plenty of time to run for the door. But during the next minute that he was not paying attention to her, the girl began to stir. It took a few times before her eyelids would permit to open properly, but once they did, she was almost immediately aware of the last thing that happened.

"Huh, I'm alive?" she was relieved, however also quite surprised by her luck. After all the crap that's happened to her, she now came to the conclusion that she could very well be invincible, just without the benefit of feeling no pain because, well, THAT would be ridiculous. Stork looked at his book like there was some nasty picture on the page, for his whole face contorted strangely. Very, _very_ slowly, he moved his focus over the top of the book and to the bed where he just heard the girl...being...awake.

"I don't recognise this ceiling," she continued wearily. "Well, I was falling towards a ship. So then maybe...maybe they saved me and I'm recovering in one of their rooms..." It took her a moment before she turned her head sideways, confronted with a green creature staring back at her with a particularly disturbed expression frozen on his face, which was now growing more disturbed by the second. Then it was almost like a staring competition, waiting to see who was going to scream first.

Well, it turned out to be Stork.

"AAAAHHHHHHH!" Stork screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Aaaahhhhhhaaahh!" the girl squealed back.

Stork toppled off his chair instantly and crashed to the floor rather ungracefully. His book went flying through the air. When he jumped back to his feet about to run for the door, he couldn't see the girl. Stork spun around on the spot looking this way and that. What the hell just happened? Did she already escape? His gaze reached the bed; the girl was gone, but in her place sat a quivering little mouse.

The mouse squeaked so loud that Stork screamed and fell to the floor again.

There was distant yelling now; the Storm Hawks heard the commotion and were calling everyone to get to the room. Stork scrambled for the door but he lost his footing in his panic and crashed into a cupboard with a terrible SMACK! BANG! Then the cupboard toppled over completely. Just as he wrenched the door open the whole team was running down the corridor towards the room.

Stork pointed feverishly as they came up to him. "THE GIRL – SHE – AND THEN – I FELL DOWN AND –A MOUSE – SHE'S A –"

Aerrow couldn't understand a word of what Stork was shouting about. "_What_?"

"THE GIRL WOKE UP AND TURNED INTO A MOUSE!" he shrieked to Aerrow and ran away flailing his green arms about.

The entire group dashed into the room.

"Where is she?" Finn asked.

Aerrow surveyed the room. "Over there." He indicated to the bed.

There on the blanket was a small mouse shivering in fright in the place where the girl should have been. They were all completely baffled.

Aerrow was the first to speak. "It's alright, we're not going to-"

Right before their eyes the mouse suddenly transformed back into the girl.

"Aaaaaaaahhh!" Finn squealed.

The girl yelled in fright and POP she changed back into the brown mouse.

"Finn!" Piper put a finger to her lips. "Shhh. Obviously when she gets scared it makes her change form, and no don't ask me how because I'm not entirely sure." She lowered herself down and kneeled next to the bed.

"Sorry, Finn just-"

Without warning the girl changed back and almost knocked Piper over.

Piper stood up, extending her hand to the girl and pulled her to her feet. "How are you feeling?"

"A little sore," the girl began. "But other than that I'm fine. Thank you so much for saving me, I thought I was done for. Was anything broken?"

"Surprisingly no. Although they say if you prepare your landing during freefall you can soften the impact."

Then it seemed she remembered something. Hurriedly she asked, "What happened to the cargo ship?"

"It's gone," Aerrow said. "Why?"

"I was trying to get back to my home terra," the girl replied with a noticeable haste in her tone.

"What's the terra's name? We'll drop you off."

"Carsenine. But it's just that...well...I don't know if it's really my home terra."

Finn looked at her sceptically. "I don't get it. Do you guys get it?"

"What do you mean?" Junko asked.

The girl tried to think of a way to explain it. "I don't know...anything. Well, yes and no. But I don't remember much if anything of my life and neither where I was living, but I really need to get back there."

There was silence for a moment.

"Well I don't think we can help you with that," Finn said. "I mean, if you don't know where you were from, like...okay I don't understand how you don't know but-"

Piper glared at him. "Finn would you shut up for a second? From the sounds of it she's got some form of amnesia."

There were footsteps and moments later Stork stormed in. "So I suppose no one decided to come and see how I was!"

The girl shouted in fright again, but Aerrow calmed her down.

"It's okay, it's okay; that's just our carrier pilot Stork."

"Sorry," the girl breathed outward. "I just...what is he?"

Stork frowned, obviously offended by this remark. "I'm a Merb."

"How about we do some introductions?" Piper suggested. "My name is Piper. You know Stork's name. And this is Aerrow, he's the Skyknight. This here is Finn, just ignore him-"

"Hey!" Finn protested.

"Well, all you're going to do is hit on her anyway, aren't you?"

Finn rolled his eyes and exclaimed indignantly. "No!"

While the girl tilted her head in the direction of Finn, Piper continued with a laugh. "Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. The tall one over there is Junko, and finally Radarr, Aerrow's co-pilot."

Radarr scrambled over to the girl, sniffing at the heels of her feet and giving her a suspicious look. It seemed as though he was trying to decide whether he approved or not.

"So what's your name?" asked Junko.

Everyone gazed at her, and she felt comfort for the first time since the start of her solo journey across Atmos to find home, wherever that was. Meeting this group was one of the few highlights she'd had in a long time.

With a warm smile the girl replied, "Ensayne."

* * *

After forcing down the disastrous attempt of a dinner by Finn – who couldn't have made a worse meal if he tried – the Storm Hawks had a private chat while Ensayne was asked to wait in a room down the hall. Now that she'd been healed by the Mill crystal, they agreed that it would be best to take her to Terra Carsenine and be on their way. The possibility that she was not who she said she was and in fact some kind of spy for the Cyclonians was still a probability. Even if she was just as innocent as she seemed without any hidden agendas, at least she would be out of harm's way.

They stayed the night on the terra. While everyone else was sleeping, Aerrow had trouble closing his eyes. He was still paranoid that this girl was a Cyclonian spy. The two Talons they ran into mentioned her having plans. What if this was the plan? Aerrow decided to get up and go check on Ensayne. The corridors echoed softly with his footsteps along the floor as he walked, so he treaded more lightly as he got closer to her room.

He opened the door as soundlessly as he could and sighed with relief - she was still in the bed sleeping. Just then he started feeling tiredness kick in; it must have been the paranoia keeping him awake. Yawning heavily, Aerrow retired back to his bed and dozed off within minutes.

* * *

**The next day, 11.45am**

The Condor hovered down to Terra Carsenine. It was a beautiful little township; there were cute country cottages lined up behind the shops in the centre, all containing lovely front gardens bursting with colour; there was a lake stretching right across the terra with boats all tied up to the docks; and the town folk were so laidback and generous, insisting that the Storm Hawks take several baskets of food and wear flower necklaces. Even though it was reaching lunch time the air was still quite crisp, but the sun allowed a bit of warmth to wash over them.

Ensayne stepped off the Condor and turned to wave goodbye. She felt sad to leave them as they were such nice people. She knew they had a quest to complete, and she needed to find her home terra. Looking around though, she couldn't see anything familiar to her; not the houses, not the faces, the park near the dock, heck not even the scent of jasmine in the air. After a long sigh of disappointment, Ensayne began walking down the footpath to look for some accommodation. She'll probably stay there for a week or so, in the meantime getting out her map of Atmos to plot the next terra for travel.

The Storm Hawks watched her shrink away into the distance as the Condor ascended from Terra Carsenine. Admittedly Piper would have liked to get to know Ensayne more, especially for her strange ability to change into a mouse. As far as Piper knew she hadn't heard of Chroma crystals being able to turn the user into an animal, only their human appearance. Considering that fright seemed to trigger Ensayne's transformation made it even more confusing and fascinating. Maybe in her own time Piper could research into it, but she had to focus on their current mission.

Ensayne spent most of the day looking for the cheapest accommodation available on Carsenine but she was shocked by how expensive it was; even private adverts in a resident's home was too much for her small pocket of coins to afford. She realised this was a rich person's terra, meaning she'd either have to find work somewhere fast or make herself comfortable in the forestry behind the main part of town.

By three in the afternoon Ensayne managed to acquire no jobs as it seemed no one was interested in hiring today. She made for a wide dirt road between some townhouses, heading straight for the forest, when she saw two men come around a corner wearing red goggles on their heads.

"The Storm Hawks did come here right?" said one.

The other man nodded vigorously. "I'm positive they landed here Delos! I saw their ship only a few hours ago."

Ensayne threw herself behind a large garbage bin. They must be the Cyclonians that Aerrow mentioned. Ensayne had never seen one in person before so she was particularly wary of crossing paths with them.

"They've probably already left Hauv. You should have stayed near the ship and done something to stop them from leaving. You're so USELESS."

Hauv flinched, expecting to be hit again. "We could ask the locals, see if anyone knows where they're headed."

"Why would the locals know that? Anyway I have a good idea where they would be going since they'd be looking for us."

Hauv didn't seem to know where he was speaking of. "Um, where's that?"

"Oh for crying out loud…CYCLONIA! Geez Hauv you really don't use your brain do you?! It's the obvious choice. Even though WE aren't set up there, a few other Talons have taken refuge and Cyclonis has been banding them together so we can attack the maximum security prison at Terra Ertghol to get the rest of them. We should radio Zarlakov, warn him of their arrival. Surely they can set up a trap to capture the Storm Hawks, then Cyclonis will have the pleasure of sorting them out herself."

Ensayne tried to absorb as much of their conversation as possible so she could relay it to the Storm Hawks. Unfortunately she bumped the rubbish bin when she changed her position to hear them better, and the Cyclonians heard it clearly.

Delos squinted around. "Someone's watching us."

The sound of boots crunching on dirt began moving around the intersection. Ensayne wasn't sure where she could go without them spotting her. Then she heard the boots against the dirt grow louder: they were definitely heading in her direction now.

Delos grinned as his eyes settled on the garbage bin. "Whoever's behind there come out now!"

Ensayne made a break for it. She jumped out from behind the bin and immediately legged it towards town. The Cyclonian men raced after her with staffs raised and blazing. Red bolts from their striker crystals sped past her head so she forced herself to run harder as she barely dodged the attacks. Residents inside the townhouses along the dirt street began throwing objects at the Cyclonians: a pot plant cracked on Hauv's head, dinner plates exploded into thousands of pieces as they hit the ground around their feet, and one resident even threw a mattress which landed right on top of both men.

Ensayne made it to the main path along the shoreline, however severely out of breath. What she needed was a sky ride so she could catch up with the Storm Hawks, tell them what she heard, and maybe even fight alongside them. There was a dealership down the end of the walk on the east part of town, so she started running in that direction. When she finally got to the shop Ensayne yelled for the owner to lock the front door. Her heart was racing, her legs searing with pain, her mouth horribly dry. She indicated to the man that she needed water so he grabbed a cold bottle out of the fridge behind him and she drank it all without pause.

Between breaths she said, "Someone's chasing after me, I need your fastest vehicle right now."

The shop owner nodded vigorously. He hurried her into the showroom. "I would normally suggest one of the Airskimmer models but if all you need is speed and reliability, nothing fancy, no extras, then you'd be better off with a Swiftflight Speedster. It has a decent amount of armour, easy to read navigation tools, radio –"

He didn't even have time to finish the summary when Ensayne interrupted him.

"Do you have keys?" she asked urgently.

The shop owner had to go back to his desk to get them but he was back very quickly. "Wow, this has to be the quickest sale I've ever had!"

A bag of coins was thrown in his face, then Ensayne leapt onto the Swiftflight. "I'm sorry I don't have enough money to fully pay for this. Thank you so much for your help." with that she started it up and sped off to the back of the store through the large open roller door, deployed the wings when she was out in the open and ascended into the air quick as a bullet. The Cyclonians, however, spotted her from the main street only a few blocks away.

"There she is in the sky!" exclaimed Hauv. Delos glared at the quickly disappearing figure, obviously frustrated at their failure. "What should we do now?" Hauv continued.

"Catch her, kill her."


	2. Operation Prisonbreak

**A/N: In this fanfiction I will from time to time have scenes that I envision with a piece of music, or just want to add it in for the fun of it. This chapter's music plugin is Mamma Cass Elliot's "Make Your Own Kind of music" I am inspired to include this because of its usage in two of my favourite shows: Lost and Dexter. I'll mention where in the chapter to begin listening to the music.**

* * *

In Atmos there are a lot of dangerous areas which people try to avoid at all costs. If they are unlucky enough to become stuck somewhere like the Black Gorge, Terra Deep or the Great Expanse, there's not much hope for their escape. And up there as one of the most feared is Terra Ertghol, home of Ertghol Maximum Security which is hands down the toughest prison in Atmos' history. Its usage is reserved for the most dangerous high-profile criminals who only ever get out when their body has decayed long enough for maggots and rats to have eaten away all the flesh, muscle and internal organs. After that, what is left of the corpse gets dumped down a massive tunnel which travels all the way to the Wastelands right above a pit of lava. Not exactly what one would call legal, but then again, all laws go out the window once you step foot on Ertghol.

When the war against Cyclonia ended, every one of them including their allies were thrown straight into this prison. They had to extend the structure to accommodate the enormous influx of several thousand new detainees, but it didn't take long; they were all forced into intense slavery building the extension, and while waiting for its completion, they were chained up singularly out in the yards where the harsh sun beat down on their forms as ravens relentlessly pecked at them. One would think that letting hundreds of Cyclonians sit around together in the open would be disastrous, but the amount of heavy armoured guards in the prison was of such a monumental amount and all were equipped with military-grade weapons to use against their prisoners if even the slightest move seemed suspicious.

Once the new extension of 30 foot concrete walls, electric fencing and windowless cells was finished, the sunburnt Talons were forced to drag their blistered feet to the cells they'd be spending the rest of their lives in.

And that's just the beginning.

On a lighter and more pleasant piece of news, Monday morning was visitor's day. This luxury was only given to them once every six months, with a maximum of two separate visitors within the day. Since inmates had minimal human contact – even between each other – it would be rather depressing if an inmate had no one come to see them.

As it was, prison life turned Ravess into an even more aggressive person than she already was. At any point when given food through the hole of her cell door, Ravess would grab the hand and try to break their fingers, or immediately attack the officer when they'd open it to let her out for an hour. From her constant violent behaviour Ravess lost this luxury for a good couple of months.

Her brother Snipe was affected differently however. Even though he had his outbursts of rage at times, he was mostly quiet now. As for Repton and the other Raptors, they weren't in the same block so the two had no idea how they were coping, that is if they hadn't all killed each other by now.

An officer approached Ravess' cell with a nasty sneer. He'd dealt with her the most out of all the staff there so he knew all her tricks as well as what threats to use to keep her in line.

"You have a visitor _Queen Psycho_. And don't even try to scrape the skin off my arms this time or I'll thrash your skinny little ass so hard it'll bleed like a sliced throat!"

This was the first bit of good news –excluding the bleeding backside part – she'd had since arriving at Ertghol.

He cuffed her hands and shackled her legs before taking her down into the visitation room. When Ravess sat down in front of her visitor she almost choked when she saw who it was. "Oh god not you!"

It was her 'other brother' Barry. Ravess had no interest in knowing him since he was the complete opposite of her and had a tendency to rant about 'morals'. Although Snipe was a total idiot, she still liked him better than Barry. His golden mane of hair was like usual as untamed as his beard.

"It's fantastic to see you my lovely sister!" he beamed. "How's prison life going for you? Did you make a scene when they didn't give you a pink jumpsuit? It must have been quite a disappointment."

Ravess struck her hands on the table and growled rather viciously. "Oh piss off you bastard. This was all the Storm Hawks' fault, none of us would be here if they'd been killed, along with the rest of you self-righteous Sky Knights."

Barry shook his head. "Us? What, you intended on killing me too? And how can you talk about killing a bunch of kids so casually, I mean, where's your conscience? Do you even remember what we were like when we were fifteen?"

His sister looked away with her nose pointed pretentiously in the air. She never liked his relays about childhood as she hated associating herself with him. "Are you trying to sway me again brother because I don't intend on changing. You're wasting your breath."

"Look where it got you!" he retorted, waving his hand at the room. "You thought that your side could win and now you're in here for life. You sacrificed yourself to an oppressive teenage ruler following in the footsteps of her mother and her grandmother. You could have been fighting WITH me instead of AGAINST me."

Ravess gestured to one of the workers in the room. "I'm finished here."

Barry tapped at the glass, giving her a serious look. "Oh no you don't Ravess, sit back down."

Ravess folded her arms, giving him a glare like a child that doesn't want to be spoken to by their parent. "Look, I'm sick of your lectures. You pride yourself on being a Sky Knight and all you want to do is force your ideals on me. You're not better than me." Finishing off her sentence with a rude gesture, Ravess strode away. Barry slammed his fist on the table and shouted angrily. His sister never took a word of advice even though all he ever intended was to help her. She was stubborn like a horse and fierce like a tiger; the two worst traits to put together in one person.

But he couldn't let her walk away just yet. Barry called out one more time to her and when she turned around he pulled out a photo from his pants pocket and slid it under the glass. Ravess slowly walked back over, glancing warily at the picture before picking it up.

It was a photo of Ravess and Barry as ten-year-olds smiling from cheek to cheek like normal happy siblings. Ravess breathed deeply, looking at him with the eyes of a regretful person. Barry leaned on the table as he watched her.

"Barry," she said softly, clasping a hand to her mouth to hide her reminiscing smile. "Stop trying to make me feel things."

"Come on sis, you can't keep up this façade forever. Take the picture with you at least, hide it if you feel you need to but promise me you'll look at it every day. Please?"

Ravess frowned. An officer inspected the item before allowing her to tuck the picture in the pocket of her jumpsuit. "Fine."

With that Barry was escorted out. But just as he was leaving, a woman walked right past him, headed over to Ravess. At first he didn't think anything of it until he caught her saying something which sent off alarm bells in his head.

"It's nice to see you Talon. Miss me much?"

Barry quickly twisted his head around to get another look. She was slim figured, with light blonde hair tied up into low-sitting pigtails, a fair complexion dotted with freckles, and had dark aqua coloured eyes. He didn't get a chance to hear any more of their conversation after that, however. The door was closed behind him and the prison officer, and while he was taken through the building back to the entrance of the prison, Barry was left to ponder over who the woman was.

Back inside the visitor's room, Ravess stared in awe at her master. Cyclonis was supposed to be long dead, and yet there she was. Her disguise as 'Lark' meant no one knew it was her, but Ravess didn't understand how she managed to get in with her Cloaking crystal when crystals were banned from being brought inside the prison except for staff personnel.

"I thought you died, Lark," Ravess whispered. "How are you here?"

Lark giggled and waved a dismissive hand. "Well, I was falling to my impending death right for the mouth of a lava serpent when a sky ride came flying towards me. I was rescued just in time. Funny, I never would have expected it to be him though."

Ravess furrowed her brow. "Him? Who is _him_?"

"A newly found friend of mine," Lark responded. "He was part of the Talons before the war but I never put him in a high position. He's also the reason I'm here without using a Cloaking crystal."

This grabbed Ravess' attention. "How is that even possible?"

Lark smiled. "It's a device that implements the effects of a crystal and transfers it to the target person permanently, but at the moment the only crystal that works with it is a Cloaking crystal. He has a squadron member taking a look to see if they can re-engineer the device to take on other types of crystals. If they are successful, I will be assigning a project to have them build more. The reason I came here is to let you know you don't have to worry about being stuck in this horrid hellhole forever. I have a plan."

Ravess grinned. "I like it when you have a plan. I was sure to die within a few years simply from the depressive state I've ended up in. How long do you think it will take?"

Lark looked around quickly at the cameras on every corner of the ceiling, the officers standing about glancing at each prisoner cautiously. One of the officers caught her gaze, and his suspicious squint narrowed further when he saw Ravess' big smile.

He immediately ran over, club raised, snatched up Lark and lifted it to her face. The whole room stopped to watch.

"What were you talking about just then girl?" he snarled heavily. Lark giggled – although Ravess knew it was just an act to make her seem normal – and she replied, "Oh, I was telling my friend about my new kitten! She's the cutest little thing ever."

The prison officer looked between the two like he knew they were up to something but couldn't do much when he had nothing to go on except for facial expressions. Frustrated, he let her go with a rough push and said, "You two are done here. Queen Psycho can go back to her cell, and you little bitch can get the fuck out as well or I might just accidentally smash your skull in because, well, it's happened before. Me and my _clumsiness_."

Lark brushed herself off as if it was nothing, then peered up at the towering monstrosity of a man with one eyebrow raised like she was challenging his authority. It almost became a showdown, but Lark had better things to do. Besides, when her Talons come to swoop down on Ertghol she could pay him a private visit and perhaps show him the inside of his own skull.

"Well, I'll see ya," Lark directed to Ravess, then blew her a kiss. Ravess rolled her eyes at Cyclonis' girly persona.

Later that day in the hour prisoners were given for recreation, Ravess approached her brother Snipe in the yard. He seemed surprised to see her since she'd been on time out for several months. After she told him of Cyclonis' visit and her plot to get them out, Snipe started cracking up. "She ain't gunna get us out sister, this place is seriously tough. Unless she has a few hundred Wallops with her there's no way it'll work. That's without any of that tactical crap either. I can't believe YOU didn't think about that!"

Ravess put a hand towards his mouth when an officer walked near the fence line watching them intensely. "Did you not pay any attention? She has the ability to Cloak herself at will now, and with that device she could give that ability to the other Talons as well. They could potentially take on the appearance of the prison officers, governors and the warden. Now do you see how this could work? Anyway, don't go telling anyone about it because the last thing we need is for one of the officers to overhear the plan."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Snipe grunted dismissively. "As long as it works I couldn't care less about how it's done. Now can you bugger off please, you're cramping my style here!"

Ravess huffed. She realised how little she could tolerate Snipe's blunt temperament, and how her solitude in a cell was just a blessing in disguise because once they were working together again for Cyclonis, she'd have to put up with him every day belittling and ignoring her advice.

Then she realised how Barry felt. Funnily enough he still cared about her even though she pushed him away every time and even though she'd threatened to kill him almost just as often. Maybe it was time for Ravess to listen to her oldest brother; once released, she could quietly disappear and start a whole new life.

* * *

"Storm Hawks, can you hear me? Hello? Anyone?"

Amidst trying to get her radio to work and frantically flying away from a couple of Talons who wanted her head, Ensayne was feeling the pressure mount very quickly. For all she knew the Talons may have already alerted the other ones and could be preparing for the Storm Hawks' arrival by now, but since they now had eyes on her after she overheard their plans, they no doubt wanted her head on a stick, so Ensayne couldn't turn around for Carsenine and leave the Storm Hawks to sort it out themselves. She knew they would be quite capable to handle it on their own but as it was mentioned: her head, on stick, no backsies.

Finally her voice came through on their radio. Most of the Storm Hawks were in their rooms at the time, so it was just Stork on the bridge when the static of the radio cleared and he heard someone speaking.

"Hello? Is someone there? Storm Hawks please if you can hear me, you're in trouble!"

Stork clicked it on. "Who's this?" he asked warily.

Ensayne breathed with relief. "Oh thank goodness! Um, Stork is it? You guys are in trouble. I saw two Cyclonians on Carsenine and they were talking about some plan to do with a maximum security prison on Terra Ertghol? And they saw me so now they're coming to kill me and they're setting up a trap to capture you all when you get to the ruins!"

It all sounded a little insane from Stork's perspective. He knew very well of that prison and there was absolutely no way anyone could overrun it considering the amount of watch towers that lined the edges of the terra. Besides that, ninety-nine percent of Cyclonis' remaining army were on the inside of the compound, in chains, and watched by officers or cameras twenty-four hours a day.

"You uhh, do know how crazy that sounds, right? This is just part of your setup, huh?"

Ensayne became frustrated. "Wh-what? Setup? I'm not doing – I know what I heard!"

Aerrow walked onto the bridge. "Stork, who is it?"

"It's the amnesia girl, she says she heard Talons talking about Cyclonis' plans –" but before Stork could continue about the absurdity of it, Aerrow immediately grabbed for the radio. Stork may be paranoid about everyone and everything, but Aerrow was not and when they left her back on the terra, he was certain by then that she was a good guy.

"Tell me everything."

An hour later Ensayne found the Condor stationary in the sky. She flew up to the runway, parked in the hangar then hopped off her ride hastily. They all walked back to the bridge together.

"How far behind do you think the Cyclonians are?" Piper asked her.

"I'd say about twenty minutes. Whatever they're riding, they aren't a match for this Swiftflight that's for sure."

Aerrow nodded. "Good. We'll change course for Terra Beddaren, it's only a few hours west of here. Once we're there we can –"

Sirens whirred from the bridge and Stork looked particularly alarmed.

"Um, guys? We have company."

Up ahead there was a swarm of Cyclonians coming their way. Aerrow ordered Finn and Junko to their positions while Stork powered up the main weapons, then they took off straight for them. Aerrow didn't want Piper and himself to go out on their rides just yet if they could take them out from the Condor first.

Finn loaded up his sharp shooter then lined up his first shot. He fired and it hit the Cyclonian's sky ride right on the nose, sending it into an immediate spiral. He proceeded to take out his second, third, fourth and fifth targets as well without fail.

"Chikka-cheh!" Finn exclaimed.

Junko wasn't so lucky though since the incident with Thragg had made him freeze at the sight of conflict. He tried to aim at the Cyclonians, but he couldn't focus. The blasts barely reached within metres of them. Junko's hands began shaking.

"I can't do this, I'm not ready!" he yelled out.

Piper rushed over to him. She placed a hand on his arm. "Just breathe deep for a moment, okay? Relax yourself. We know what you've been through. Just remember, Thragg was fooled into thinking they were the stronger ally. He wasn't thinking about his morals, only who would win. You can help save the Wallops that are left from being corrupted like he was."

Junko sighed. "I know Piper. I just…feel like I don't have it in me to be the strong Wallop I was. When Chief Thragg looked at me before I…before I did it, he looked at me like I was his real enemy. He never even said he was sorry. He wanted me dead. I think my strength died when he did, Piper. I haven't felt anything since then, all I've wanted is to leave it all behind me."

Piper gave Junko a hug. She felt bad that he'd been hurt psychologically like that, but she didn't quite know how to help him through the pain. After a moment, Piper said to him, "Why don't you go back to the bridge and stay with Aerrow? I can take over here."

Junko smiled weakly. "I'm sorry Piper, I don't want to disappoint you guys."

She shook her head. "It's okay Junko, you would never disappoint us. If you're not ready then you're not ready."

Back on the bridge Stork had started up the weapons, firing in quick bursts. The Cyclonians weren't prepared for such a heavy assault and dropped out of the sky like flies. With all this success the Storm Hawks should have been happy, but Aerrow wasn't easily fooled.

"Stork, do you have any readings on the scanner aside from the Cyclonians?" Aerrow asked him. Stork leaned over to the controls but before he could voice his findings, clusters of yellow light beamed from a formation of thick clouds in the distance and within seconds the Storm Hawks were showered with explosions.

"It's an ambush!" Aerrow realised. "Stork get us out of here fast, the Condor can't take much more damage."

Piper and Finn left their positions quickly and retracted the manual cannons back inside. The two made their way to the bridge.

Stork pulled the Condor away but then several blasts shot straight into one of the engine pontoons. Alarms whirred loudly, indicating a serious problem. The Condor started tilting to its side.

"WE'RE GOING DOOOOOWN!" shouted Stork. They saw the enemy ship speed out from the clouds towards them, following as they descended. Once it was directly above them, ten anchors dropped down from underneath it and latched onto the Condor. The Storm Hawks gasped at the unexpected jerk they felt when their ship stopped falling, which sent them all tumbling to the floor.

Stork heaved himself up with a groan, then had a look out the window. "Um, guys? They've captured us."

* * *

The sun was falling fast as night was creeping closer. When their unexpected enemies flew down from their ship on unrecognisable sky rides to the runway, the Storm Hawks immediately grouped together and made their way down with weapons ready; even Radarr was kicking at the air with teeth bared in a nasty snarl.

Just as these strangers were taking off their helmets, Junko looked around at his crew and then said to Finn softly, "Hey, have you seen Ensayne?"

Finn shook his head then had a moment of doubt. "Oh man, what if she was in on this the whole time! She totally tricked us, probably going through all our stuff right now. Aerrow, Aerrow!" Finn walked over to his red-headed friend and whispered, "Ensayne's not here. I think she was in on this thing from the get go."

It didn't seem like Aerrow believed it, whether in doubt or simply trusting his instincts. "She may have turned into a mouse again, who knows. Send Junko to look for her."

Once Finn told Junko to find Ensayne and he'd left the runway, the remaining Storm Hawks got a good look at their unwelcome guests. The first to step forward, wearing a long black leather jacket over their attire, was a green-haired male. He wielded a long energy sword mounted with a Firebolt crystal. He appeared to be the leader of the squad. The girl next to him had vivid magenta hair and she looked severely furious like the wind had frozen her face that way.

The other female of the group wasn't human; not a raptor, but certainly from another lizard race. Her scales were very fine and soft-looking. Like the girl's small physique, her tail was just as slender and long as the rest of her.

Next to her was a lanky looking boy covered in armour, but he didn't look the type who could handle a tough fight. He was even trying to look nasty, but it wasn't working all that well. Stork seemed less awkward in comparison.

The last of them stood at the very back of the group in the shadows of his fellow members, like he wasn't interested in being there. His raven black hair was prominent as there was quite a bit of it, but when Piper's gaze fell on his face she saw that his eyes were a violent shade of purple, and they seemed to glisten unnaturally.

"So you're the Storm Hawks?" the green haired male began. "Geez, you lot look a bit…odd, don't you? What the hell's that green thing over there?"

Stork's eye twitched at the comment and his hands curled into fists. "What? You haven't seen a Merb before?"

"Oh, is that what you are…bloody freaky looking thing aren't ya! Merbs are part amphibian right, so that makes an oversized frog or some shit doesn't it?" he began laughing, as did the rest of his crew.

Stork did not take the insult well. Just as he was about to go deck the guy, Aerrow pulled out his twin energy blades and said, "Stop insulting my friend and tell me what you want with us NOW."

"Well, insulting your friend is quite entertaining," the leader began, grinning. "Look at his face, he's FUMING, about ready to strangle the crap outta me no doubt." He gave a snide chuckle watching Stork grow more and more impatient. "But he'd have to get past my mates first. And so would you," this was directed to Aerrow. "Oh, and you and you, and that gross little Skymonkey you have too. Oh gosh, did I offend the bugger!" Radarr was snarling and chomping his jaws as the man said this. Aerrow grabbed Radarr to stop him.

Stork walked over to Aerrow. "Let Radarr bite his leg off, this guy's throwing insults at us! Why would you want to STOP us from attacking him?"

Finn piped up. "I have to agree with Stork, we shouldn't be taking his crap. This bloke's a total loser!" For some reason Finn's comment made the man burst into laughter. Finn furrowed his brow in confusion. "I uhh…didn't say anything funny. What the heck's WRONG with you dude? Are you like, crazy?"

The man stopped laughing. "Our squadron is called the Total Losers. I thought it was pretty funny that you'd –"

Then the Storm Hawks cracked up laughing. Finn almost had trouble breathing because he was laughing so hard. The man folded his arms and watched their reaction, which didn't seem to offend him in the least. In fact, it was almost like he wanted them to laugh.

"The thing you all don't realise since you're having a good chuckle is that by the time I finish this sentence we'll have the lot of you tied up in chains because my friend Polly has a wonderful surprise up her sleeve!"

Before they could make a move, the Storm Hawks became wrapped up in metal chains that had appeared out of nowhere, forcing their hands behind them. As they struggled, though, the chains constricted further.

Piper didn't understand how this was possible. She had never heard of a crystal that could conjure up objects. The lizard girl called Polly gave them a smile, and then turned to smile at the creepy looking purple-eyed male.

The leader turned to Polly again and said, "Go look for the Wallop and get him chained up as well. We don't want Cyclonis' scheme to fall through because we let one loose by accident, as I'm sure you know by now she's dealt with enough idiot Talons who've failed her, so we have to make a good impression."

Polly nodded quietly. She strolled past the captured Storm Hawks, not giving any of them eye contact. For a moment Finn's eyes roved over her and when Piper saw this she hissed, "Oh would you stop staring at every girl that walks past you, she's not even human!"

Finn huffed. "Would you STOP having a go at me Piper? I like girls, and if they're pretty then of course I'm going to look! Especially if they, you know, have nice uhh…" he proceeded to describe with his hands, making several exaggerated round gestures.

"I get it Finn!" Piper snapped.

Unfortunately all this conversing had grabbed the attention of the squadron's leader, and as he walked over Aerrow's eyes narrowed quickly, trying to reach for one of his blades.

"Well look at this now," the man grinned, staring at Piper. "Such a lovely little thing aren't you?"

Aerrow clenched his teeth. Radarr started snarling again.

"You're a dainty one, but strong on the inside – and probably outside, too. Just what I like, would you believe? Who knows, maybe you and I could –"

Piper had managed to reach for her staff and got it to shoot off her cuffs. She knocked the leader backwards quickly. When she was just about to get Aerrow's constraints off, the staff suddenly lost power. Piper looked at it, turning the switch on and off, but the crystal no longer had a charge.

"Whaaaat?!"

The leader nodded to his dark-haired friend with a smirk. Piper looked over to him, then gasped in horror. The energy from the crystal was being sucked into his purple eyes! She knew straight away what was happening but she didn't want to believe it. Leech crystals are well known for being highly unstable and if they reach full capacity, they will explode. So what kind of lunatic could he be to decide that he wanted fragments of Leechers inside his eyes? Were they all crazy?

Since she was so distracted being gobsmacked by this, the leader of the group clicked on his own pair of chains. With a dark grin he whispered to her, "Lucky I have my own set, just for girls like you."

Back up on the bridge, Junko was continuing to look for Ensayne when he felt something scuttle past his foot and instinctively twitched it away. Then he realised, if she was a mouse, then that was probably her at his feet. Junko got on his knees to look under the furniture and he found her almost instantly. She hesitantly crawled out from underneath, pointing her paws at her mouse body and sighing. It seemed as though she was stuck that way.

"Stay up here and keep yourself hidden. If they capture the rest of us and don't find you, we might have a chance of escaping later on."

Mouse Ensayne nodded in understanding and scampered back beneath the lounge. Moments later someone came walking up from the hangar. At first Junko thought it might have been Aerrow, but he was sorely mistaken when he realised it was the lizard girl from the other squadron. Junko waved at her nervously.

"I suppose you want to capture me?" he asked her. She didn't speak, but she smiled and held up a crystal in front of her. Junko looked at it curiously. She pointed it towards him and chains sprung out like slithery snakes, snapping shut around his wrists then binding them behind his back.

Polly indicated for him to follow her. Junko shook his head. "No, I won't go. I am a Storm Hawk, and…we don't give up!" In that moment he tensed his Wallop muscles and began to pull hard on the chains. Polly watched him with much interest as he struggled against them, straining and yanking without much luck. He relaxed for a moment, building himself up to pull as hard as possible, and then –

SNAP!

The distinct sound of metal clanked and crashed to the floor. Junko looked at Polly, who stared in horror. "I might not be the strongest Wallop, but I'm still a Wallop!"

Junko thought it was over now, that she'd run off to the airstrip and tell her crew they should leave, and Junko would rush out and beat the heck out of the lot before they left with their tails between their legs.

Well…that doesn't happen.

Without hesitation the lizard girl ran to the side and began scaling the wall of the bridge, then the ceiling, and within seconds she was on top of Junko. Her tail lashed against his body repeatedly as she protruded her face into his to bite down several times, hissing as she did so. Junko howled and flailed his arms about in a panic. He collapsed to the ground, frantically struggling still. Polly sat on top of Junko with her tail curled around one leg, her hands against his shoulders to hold him down. He tried to lift her off and yet it was like she weighed a ton.

"Get…off…" Junko groaned. "Please…!"

Polly leaned down towards his face. Her piercing yellow eyes darted side to side as she stared at him intently. Slowly, she moved herself off of him. Junko sat up.

"How are you stronger than me?" he gasped. When she didn't answer, he continued to say, "And why aren't you talking?"

It didn't seem like she was in the mood to explain, or perhaps she just couldn't talk at all. Polly pointed at him, then held up the crystal again. Junko sighed in defeat.

When the two left the room, it was just in time because Ensayne unexpectedly transformed back, while still under the lounge, and since there was not much room for a person to be hiding under there she banged her head on the underside and felt the pressure of her whole body cramped against it.

"Ow ow ow!" she tried to wriggle herself out, though incredibly difficult, but inch by inch she eventually came unstuck. Ensayne stood up and stretched out for a moment in an attempt to uncramp her muscles, then made her way to the window of the bridge and looked outside. The enemy squad had knocked out the Storm Hawks with some kind of sleep-inducing crystal, and were in the process of taking them up to their own ship on their sky rides. What was she to do now? She had no idea what their plans were, but it was quite possible that they'd be heading to the ruins of Cyclonia and giving the Storm Hawks over.

Ensayne's stomach dropped when she saw the two Cyclonians that had been chasing her pull up onto the runway. Her sky ride was sitting in the hangar bay, they'd recognise it in an instant. She needed to hide fast.

"Just when I would like to transform I bet I won't be able to now," she mumbled under her breath in frustration.

Out on the runway, the two Cyclonians called down the other squad to meet with them there. Delos shook the leader's hand. "Good work capturing those Storm Hawks. Cyclonis will be pleased with your efforts. What is your name?"

"Danger," responded the green haired man. "Or 'D' for short. I'm glad that we have proven useful to her cause. We will continue to bring her satisfaction."

"Have you come across a brown-haired girl? We spotted her on Carsenine, she heard us talking about Cyclonis and Ertghol prison. I noticed her sky ride is sitting in the hangar over there."

Danger shook his head. "No, we haven't seen this girl you speak of. Todd, would you like to take a look with Polly? Search every inch of this ship until you find her. Rave, I need you back on the Lammergeyer – start setting a course for Cyclonia. And Leecher, continue working on that device. The sooner it's ready the better."

There was no time to lose. Ensayne ran down several corridors of the ship, looking in each room for a possible place to stow herself. She heard people walking onto the bridge – that would be the people they sent to look for her. Ensayne froze on the spot. If they heard her take another step she'd be done for.

_If I can't control my transformation I'll have to scare myself into it_, Ensayne realised. _You heard the Cyclonians plans…they won't keep you hostage because you're nobody. You'll be killed on the spot when they find you…_

She heard the two coming down the hallway now. Ensayne's attempts at psyching herself up into a state of fear paid off just in time; Polly and Todd walked into the room, looking around intently for any clues, but all they found was a mouse darting into a crack on the wall.

"Nothing here." said Todd to Polly. When she pointed towards where the mouse disappeared, he shook his head. "I'm doubtful. Chromas and Cloakers are only good for changing human appearance. Ask Leecher, he's read tons of books about animal transformation attempts, no one's been able to figure it out. Come on, we've still got a lot of other rooms to check out. Still can't believe I'm on the Condor! Did you know –"

His sentence trailed off as the two left the room. Ensayne slowly extended out of the hole, and waited until she could no longer hear their voices before scurrying into the hall. Then it occurred to her that she should probably get onto the other ship so she could listen in on what they were going to do next. If Ensayne had any chance of crossing the runway and getting up onto the other ship undetected, she would need to distract them somehow because the last thing she needed was to be running past as a mouse and then turn back into a human midway. As it was, she felt rather anxious about how much time she had left.

The easiest thing she could think of to get their attention was to set off alarms. When she reached the bridge, Ensayne jumped up onto the console and looked for one of the alarm buttons, but none of the buttons were labelled.

_I don't have time to look through a manual! Well, here goes nothing…or everything!_

Todd and Polly had been in the engine room at the time when the Condor's alarms deafened their ears. In the midst of this, sprinklers had also turned on, music started playing from the speakers _["Make Your Own Kind of Music" by Mamma Cass Elliot]_, and the hatches on every room were automatically opening and shutting.

"What the hell is going on?!" Todd shouted over the noise to Polly. She made hand gestures to her hair as if she was fluffing it, and batted her eyelids. "You're right Polly, it must be that girl Delos told us about. Let's get to the bridge before she hides again!"

The two ran as fast as they could, hearing the chorus of the music echo through the ship with the sirens whining over the top. But when they were halfway down the main corridor they saw that the hatch was closing and shutting – she'd set off all the doors!

Polly went ahead anyway. Todd shouted out for her to stop, worried that she'd get sliced in half if she didn't calculate it right. When the hatch opened up, Polly dived forward and landed smoothly on the floor. When she turned around and saw Todd's horrified expression, she looked down to see that it had chopped off half her tail.

She didn't take this well. The room was suddenly filled by the sound of a very frightening and ear-splitting hiss that quickly turned into a scream.

By the time Danger and the two Cyclonians came rushing in, Ensayne was well on her way outside and looking for the closest rope to climb. Then, once she made it to the point where it extended from the other ship, she climbed up inside the hole.

Danger strode onto the bridge of the Condor and looked madly at Todd and Polly. "Where's the girl?"

"We couldn't find her," Todd replied with a good deal of anxiousness in his voice.

Danger's eyes narrowed in on him. "So what the hell happened here then? Did a ghost just come on through and play with the buttons, then piss off back into the depths of the ship?"

Todd shook his head. "No, no. We were in the engine room when it happened, and we were running as fast as we could but...she was gone when we got here."

"What about Polly, did she see anything? Surely she saw SOMETHING."

Todd looked to Polly, but she too shook her head. Danger sighed heavily. Frustrated, he punched his fist into the console, which sizzled as sparks flew everywhere. The sirens, sprinklers and music all stopped completely.

"I DON'T HAVE TIME TO DEAL WITH THIS BULLSHIT!" Danger roared. "IF ANYTHING HAPPENS BECAUSE OF ONE GIRL THAT WE NEVER FOUND…!" He pulled out his sword. The two Cyclonians who were standing next to him shouted in horror when a flash of red light filled their eyes. Their lifeless bodies thumped onto the concrete ground.

"I don't trust Talons not to have the brains to keep their mouths shut so…what the hell, it was far easier to kill them than to risk the possibility that they slip up, which they do. And you both know that you're my family now so your lives are just as important as my own."

Polly was starting to lose consciousness. Danger walked over to help Todd lift her up. "Get a Curasol crystal and rub it on the cut, she might die otherwise. Let's hope we can get Operation Prisonbreak in motion by tomorrow."

* * *

**A/N: Since Polly's tail loss was not caused by autotomy I am not sure what happens to a lizard under other circumstances. And since we're not talking actual lizards – but of a hybrid between human and lizard – I think it should be safe to bend the reality a bit anyway and Curasol is my answer to a common crystal that can be used for healing, since it doesn't seem like in the show that mill crystals are common, or at the very least the knowledge of using it on people.**


End file.
